THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607160138
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
DATELINE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER LENGTH: 135 lines
LIKE A PICTURE'S FRAME, Kent Collins' career in the military serves as a boundary for his creative spirit and lets his theatrical talent flow as freely as paint onto a canvas.
When he's not working on the propulsion plants of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft, this 32-year-old Navy lieutenant likes to spend his time singing, acting, choreographing and directing.
This week, Collins directs ``Eat Your Heart,'' a drama that opened Wednesday night and runs through Sunday at the Generic Theater in Ghent. Curtain time is 8 p.m. tonight through Saturday, and Sunday's matinee is at 2 p.m. It's one of five productions in the experimental theater's third annual ``New Plays for Dog Days'' summer festival, a monthlong event.
Collins says that his 10-year stint in the Navy has provided the structure that has set his artistic spirit free.
``If you've never been penned in, you don't realize the joy of creativity,'' he said during a recent rehearsal of the two-act play. ``When you're out at sea, your 24-hour day is completely regimented, technical, rigid. The schedule made me realize how nice it is to pursue this.''
For three weeks, the cast honed their lines nightly in a large room at Atlantic Entertainment studios a few blocks from the theater.
Collins settles into an easy chair, flips open his worn copy of the script and starts giving directions to David Cross and Tim Kircher, who play ``Binge'' and ``Stub'' respectively in the production.
The two fictional characters are basically nice guys who just never amounted to much. As they approach middle age, their lives revolve around smuggling cigarettes to Canada, fishing and playing softball.
``Remember the blocking?'' Collins admonishes gently, and his actors reposition themselves at the center of the room. Collins adjusts his glasses and checks the notes he has made in the margins of the script.
The scene opens with the men fishing and drinking beer while sitting back-to-back in an imaginary rowboat.
``We'd have to get $100 a fish, maybe more, if we ever figured out what we spent,'' quips Binge, casting his line out onto imaginary water.
Director Collins says the characters are ``great big teens who engage in a wonderful banter, like the trickle of a river running by. They could be anybody's ex.''
The theater billed the play as a ``slice-of-life drama ... heart-warming tale of reckoning.''
Written by Virginia Beach playwright Bob Boehler, the script was one of five selected from more than 100 submitted to the theater for consideration this season. Other plays chosen for performance were written by playwrights from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Boehler, 55, teaches math and science at Birdneck Elementary School in Virginia Beach. He has been writing plays for about 10 years and has had one other produced.
Lt. Kent Collins has show biz in his soul. He played his first part at age 8 in a production of ``Mame.''
He grew up in the small South Carolina town of Sumter in a family that just oozed showmanship. His father, an Air Force career man, sang and acted, and his mother, an English teacher by profession, was a choreographer and dancer at heart and in her spare time.
Kent Collins attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he majored in English. He moved to Norfolk two years ago from the Seattle area. His wife, Erin Collins, a professional photographer, plays a part in the production.
So far, the rehearsal of Scene One is flawless, and now Cross and Kircher are joined by Jessmyne Dizon in a dry run of the cafe scene. Dizon, 30, of Norfolk, is a hotel reservationist in her real-life role and plays several parts in the production. In this particular scene, she's ``Wang,'' a waitress, but she also appears as the restaurant's owner and as ``Woo,'' an illegal immigrant Binge and Stub have smuggled across the Canadian border into the United States.
Collins watches and listens intently, ad-libbing a few sound effects and promptly prompting his actors and actresses when they stumble over their lines, although such mistakes are infrequent.
Cross, who plays Binge, is a 52-year-old retired steel company employee who lives in Virginia Beach. Kircher, alias Stub, is 31 and lives in Norfolk. In the real world, he's an industrial manager.
Erin Collins is getting ready to rehearse her lines. She plays ``Sonya,'' Binge's friend, a young divorced mother who likes to party.
The Collins' 8- and 10-year-old sons are nonchalant. This rehearsal stuff is obviously old hat to them, for they sit like mirror images of each other on opposite sides of the room, eyes glued to their hand-held video games, baseball caps pulled down tight and backward on their heads.
Anne Morton, a 31-year-old professional actress from Norfolk, is clearly anxious to run through her lines. She plays ``Renee,'' Stub's romantic interest - at least for a few hours - after the two meet at the hospital where she works as a nurse.
The festival runs from July 10 through Aug. 10. During the final week, all productions will be repeated for a panel of judges who will award two prizes. The ``Top Dog'' award goes to the best overall production, and the ``Pick of the Litter'' prize goes to the best new script.
The challenge for Collins and his cast will be to create a memorable experience for the audience in the ``low budget'' production, Collins says. A ``black box'' approach will be used - a black-curtained stage with slides used to set the scene.
``Minimal set - content rather than flash and flair,'' says Collins.
Kent Collins credits his Navy life for providing the structure he needed to let his creativity blossom.
``I was good on the stage when I was young, but not really good until after I'd had six or seven years of Navy training,'' he says. ``If all you ever know is freedom, no boundaries, if you're raised that way, you don't realize how valuable the structure is.''
Sometimes, though, he says, ``it's hard to keep the blinders on'' in his real-life job.
``Those who are happiest are those who can balance the creative with the practical,'' Collins said. ``If I didn't have the other stuff to balance, if I didn't have the Navy to balance, I'd have been out in leftfield.''
Now director Collins' attention turns back to the mock stage.
``They're ready,'' he whispers aside so the cast can't hear him.
The Generic Theater is located at 912 W. 21st St. The summer festival project is made possible in part through sponsorship by the City of Norfolk and the Norfolk Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Other upcoming productions in the series are ``Clown Speak'' by Nikki Harmon and ``A Mother's Death Wish'' by Jay Folb. Individual tickets are $6, and a festival pass is $18. For more information and reservations, call 441-2160. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
[Color cover photo of Navy Lt. Kent Collins in navy uniform]
Tim Kircher of Norfolk, left, and David Cross of Virginia Beach star
in the Generic Theater's production of ``Eat Your Heart.'' The
characters are nice guys who just never amounted to much.
Kent Collins shouts an offstage sound effect as a cue for an actor.
Collins' wife, Erin, who also appears in the play, laughs at the
unexpected outburst of her husband.
Kent Collins talks with Tim Kircher, center, and David Cross while
directing ``Eat Your Heart.''
Photo
Bob Boehler
Playwright by CNB